Brazil has underlined its commitment to boosting visitor numbers through the trade as it marks a year-on-year rise of 18% in total volumes from the UK.
The UK market is the fourth-largest in Europe for Brazil, with 111,000 British travellers visiting the destination between the start of January and the end of September this year – up from 94,000 visitors in the same period last year.
“More and more British visitors are coming – what we have to offer matches what the British tourist is looking for,” said Alisson Andrade, head of international markets at the Brazilian Tourist Board.
This year’s January – September figure is slightly down on pre-pandemic 2019, when 120,555 UK visitors were recorded. By the end of that year, the total was 163,425 and in 2023 it was 130,239.
The destination has been buoyed this winter by British Airways’ decision to increase the frequency of flights between Heathrow and São Paulo from daily to 10 a week – raising the number of seats by 28% compared with last year.
Andrade said the tourist board would continue its year-round engagement with UK travel agents as it promotes the scope of holiday types on offer.
“Among British people, we see a great interest in Rio de Janeiro, Iguazu Falls, Pantanal and Manaus,” he noted.
In Rio de Janeiro, he said, travellers can experience “a little bit of everything”, pointing to the music scene, Carnival festivities, the food, beaches and nature.
He added: “Travel agents play a very important role in terms of showing Brazil is the right destination for their customers.
“The client might say to the agent, ‘I would like to go to a sunny place where people are friendly and I also want contact with pristine nature’.
“And we want to work with agents, so they say: ‘Brazil is right for you, because it has everything’.”
Bird-watching is among the activities increasingly being promoted to UK travellers, with Brazil keen to highlight it has nearly 2,000 species.
“If you want to see the most interesting birds in the world, you need to go to Brazil,” said Andrade. “This is a niche we’re exploring now.”
Picture: Alisson Andrade, head of international markets at the Brazilian Tourist Board